Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Report: Kaine Says Clinton Will Release Health Info; Trump Suggests No Moderator in Debates; Clinton Says U.S. Should Be Open to Business With Russia. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 12, 2016 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:49] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to Hillary Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine, he's talking to reporters after speaking in Dayton, Ohio.

TIM KAINE, (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ...feeling good last Monday. Some of you saw when we were here. But then she had a very busy week. She powered through that week with the commander in chief forum and other events.

She was diagnosed on Friday and then decided to do -- you know, to move forward with the national security briefing. And then really wanted to be there as a senator from New York obviously yesterday morning. I ran my first city council race in 1994 and had pneumonia when was running. I made the same choice, to power through.

I couldn't do it at 100 percent but I wasn't willing to do it at 0 percent. I think that is what she is trying to do, none of you are surprised to know she has a super strong work ethic. That's what is going on. She said she'll release more health information.

Hillary has already released significant more health information than Donald Trump has. I hope there will be an even standard applied to getting them both to release sufficient information. Not just on health but obviously we have the ongoing issue on taxes, too.

Second, I understand that Donald Trump has been going after Hillary today for her comments over the weekend where she basically called out the views that are animating some of his campaign, views that are treating people as second-class citizens because of their religion or because of their national origin or saying offensive things about women. Hillary spoke in a blunt way and called those views out. The views need to be called out.

And the views need to be called out. They can't just be tolerated. They need to be called out. She said, maybe I got the percentage wrong about who is animated by these views, but it is very clear to all of us that the Trump campaign has given a platform. You can call them whatever you want, the alt-right movement or others, but when David Duke is doing robo-calls saying vote for Trump, and those at the fringe of the conspiracy movement, like Alex Jones are being incorporated into the campaign in ways. Or even the recent choices of campaign management, this is something that is really important. And I think we do need to call it out. Because in a country that we

believe should be characterized by respect, there are some views that can't just be silent in the face of them. Silence in the face of views like this has caused huge problems in the past.

[15:35:00] Hillary also said what I've often said, which is there is a motivation for Trump supporters too, dealing with economic anxieties, where people feel the community or industry they trained for, they don't see a future for it.

We have a duty to listen and speak to those views. Obviously in the campaign but if we win, we have to offer solutions to people. Hillary made that plain in her statement as well, that half wasn't commented on as much but I thought it was a very sensitive discussion. Because she was talking to friends and telling friends, look, we have to take seriously some of these anxieties even if they're the anxieties of people who aren't voting for us.

That's important. And that's the kind of president she would be. With that, I'll open it up and take some questions.

REPORTER: (OFF MIKE)

KAINE: It starts soon. Look, I think it will be soon but I don't have the date right now to offer. I'm sure the campaign will offer that information. And I'm sure, look, she's going to try to balance this issue of I've got to be out there making my case. I've got a work ethic and the campaign, but also my doctor is telling me what to do to make sure I'm in good shape. I know she's getting ready for the debate on the 26th. There's a lot she's juggling. I'm sure she'll balance those right and the campaign will put that information out soon, yes.

REPORTER: (OFF MIKE)

KAINE: It's a little bit troubling, but, see, we have the experience, though too, of spending a lot of time just talking to citizens. I'm going to be doing a roundtable discussion in Cincinnati later with a group of pastors. I can assure you they'll ask me hard questions. What do we do about criminal justice reform? What do we do to actually create that economy that works for everybody?

As I'm talking to citizens in Virginia and elsewhere, these issues that I would call kind of side issues, they don't get -- they're not what people are asking me about. They are asking me tough, hard challenging questions but necessity tend to be more, you know, how do we create an economy that works for everybody? How can we be safe in a world that's challenging? And how do we create a community where everybody's respected?

REPORTER: (OFF MIKE)

KAINE: I don't think the -- the latter I definitely don't think so. I think, look, the campaign said in retrospect, maybe it would have been better to just say after the Friday, just say, OK, here's the situation. But, you know, I lived through something very similar in my first race. I kind of know what the thinking was which is, OK, I've got a diagnosis. It's serious but it's something a lot of people manage.

And so -- and, again, this is no surprise to any of you. Hillary has a very strong work ethic. Her sense was, if I was bit sick earlier in the week. I did the forum and these other things. I've got it but I'm going to power through. That was her way some of you were with me Labor Day. You saw when she was on stage and had that coughing fit, she was like, no, I'm doing this. Dot somebody else take the mike. No, I'm doing this.

Then she did an event later in the day and flew to Illinois -- or what was it, quad cities and did an event there. That's kind of what she was up to. I'm sure on Friday she said, okay, I think I can manage this. And I think the campaign said in retrospect, we might do that one differently. But I think they made it plain pretty quickly yesterday in a timely way, in a way that I think was appropriate.

REPORTER: (OFF MIKE)

KAINE: Yes. I don't want to talk about her and my conversations, the content of them just to say that I reached out to her as soon as the incident happened on Sunday, as soon as I was aware of it. I was sadly in my briefing memos and didn't know about it right away. I reached out to her as quickly as I heard and she was extremely responsive right away and going back and forth and even kidding me a little bit because I've had a day that may not be so pleasant but you're having an unpleasant one, too. She was giving me trouble in that way. I can just say, I'm not going to get into the content, but we talked yesterday after the incident happened.

REPORTER: (OFF MIKE)

[15:40:00] KAINE: Yes, it is -- yes, it is a warm and friendly and communicative relationship. And I think any time I need to talk to her, I do. And we talk immediately. And sometimes it's one-on-one as the incident happened. But we have a very good communication. And I just feel an unusual degree of synergy between the two of us. Even, you know, we've done a couple interviews where it's been kind of eerie where I'll start a thought and she'll complete where I was going or vice versa. We have very good communication r s in our backgrounds. You know, Midwestern, kind of church background, small business background. She grew up in a Republican house, so did I. I kind of know where she comes from and she gets where I come from.

REPORTER: (OFF MIKE)

KAINE: Well, again, I think the important thing is, if you let, you know, deplorable statements go unchallenged, that's actually divisive. I would call on -- I would call on others to condemn deplorable statements. There are too many people who are supporting Donald Trump, and I'm talking about elected officials, who don't go on record and condemn deplorable statement. This guy wants to be commander in chief of the military but says the military is a disaster. I think that's worthy of public condemnation. This is someone who goes after a judge who's Mexican American and says the very fact of his heritage makes him unqualified to render a ruling in a case. That's a comment worthy of condemnation. I think when we're at our best, we condemn comments and attitudes and ideas more than we condemn people, and that can sometimes -- you know, you can sometimes just in the heat of the moment adjust that a little bit one way or the other, but if you don't condemn deplorable statements, if you don't condemn divisive statements, then you allow our politics to become divided.

And, you know, there's one thing that unifies Hillary and me. In our whole public service careers. We're trying to pull people together and not allow people to be divided, especially old-style, we're blaming you, you're second class. That old-style division, which has been a feature of American politics and a feature of Virginia politics.

BALDWIN: So, Tim Kaine obviously standing up for the woman at the top of the ticket, standing up for Hillary Clinton, being asked by reporters in Dayton, Ohio, about her basket of deplorables comment she made on Friday, and also talking about the relationship together, their shared years and passion for service and also her pneumonia.

And he mentioned the debate prep. So, we know so far she's taking at least two days off the trail just to recoup.

Perhaps she's thinking of the debate that is two weeks from today, the very first presidential debate. Floated around, including my next two guests, at two different universities who agree Donald Trump agrees. What about the notion of no moderator? Let's discuss that next.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Two weeks from tonight, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will face off in the very first presidential debate. The four moderators chosen for this year's debates are bound face as much scrutiny as the nominees themselves, that is especially likely following the criticism of NBC's Matt Lauer, what he endured hosting the commander in chief forum last week. So here's an idea, don't have a moderator? Donald Trump is floating precisely that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think maybe we should have no moderator. Let Hillary and I sit there and just debate because I think the system is being rigged so it's a very -- it's going to be a very unfair debate. And I can see it happening right now because everyone was saying he was soft on Trump. Now the new person is going to try to be really hard on Trump just to show the establishment what he can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in two guests who agree with Mr. Trump. Sam Nelson standing by, senior lecturer at Cornell University and director of Cornel's debate program, and Melissa Miller from Bowling Green State University. Sam, let me have you lay it out for everyone. You say, don't have a moderator. Have a timekeeper. Explain that.

SAM NELSON, DIRECTOR, DEBATE PROGRAM, CORNEL UNIVERSITY: Right. The main idea is the focus would be on the debaters, not on some third party, especially the moderator. And so by not requiring the moderator to do too much, you actually throw the ball in the court of the debaters. They become the fact checkers, they become the show, which is exactly what it should be.

BALDWIN: So Melissa, how would they know to switch topics or what to talk about or to fact check one another?

MELISSA MILLER, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY: Yes, that would still be the role of this timekeeper, meaning the topics could still be decided in advance, the candidates could be aware of the topics in advance, and, in fact, we suggest that the topics actually be picked by voters as much as the commission on presidential debates gives the Gallop Organization, the responsibility to choose undecided voters for the town hall style debate.

[15:50:00] We are recommending the Gallup also be given the responsibility to query voters about what are their most important topics. And to chime in with what Sam said, one of the features of this is that it would be voter driven rather than moderator driven, and the timekeeper would cue the candidates as to when to switch topics and would be there to introduce the new topic, to give each candidate perhaps a minute or two to speak, and then just let the candidates discuss it amongst each other.

BALDWIN: Have you watched cable news? I have people on my show, very often with very different perspectives and often I feel like I need a whistle as a referee. Imagine these two on stage talking all over one another. Go ahead, there is a bit of a delay. You all are being so polite. Go ahead, Sam.

NELSON: Here's what I think. I think that it's good that people that are running for office show all their blemishes. If they are rude. They go over time, that's important to know. When you have guests on cable television, they're not usually running for an office. But I think to protect the voters from seeing the unblemished candidate is really something the media shouldn't do.

We need to know if they're rude, we need to know if they can't follow rules we need to know if they say inappropriate things to each other. The best way to do that is to not have a moderator step in between them in a live debate.

BALDWIN: All right. We'll be watching Lester Holt. He's got a big job in two weeks. I appreciate you both, Sam Nelson and Melissa Miller, with an idea that Donald Trump may consider. Than you all so much.

After criticizing Donald Trump for praising Vladimir Putin, she tells CNN she's now willing to work with the president of Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that if there are ways to do business with Russia, we should always do business. What I most worry about with Trump is that he is conveying several impressions to people around the world that are quite damaging. With respect to Russian Putin, this romance with Putin, he's praised Saddam Hussein as well, says to America that he doesn't stand for human rights, for American rights, for human dignity. We're willing to work with many leaders, I've had many conversations with Putin, but we're not willing to roll over and adopt his wish list, which is exactly what Donald Trump has done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to our national chief correspondent there in Moscow. From everything I'm reading, you know that the tension between secretary Clinton and president Putin, it goes deep. Can you tell me just how deep it p between the two, if she were to win, would look like?

MATHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's certainly no love lost between Putin and Hillary Clinton, and there's speculation around what the cause of that is. But I think it dates back to 2011 when president Putin was reelected into that office here in the kremlin. And there were protests afterwards.

And Hillary Clinton basically said the result of the election was dishonest and unfair. And that was interpreted by Putin as being a signal by the state department, by Hillary Clinton -- it was at the state department back then, of course -- to spark a kind of regime change movement in Russia.

And the speculation is that he very much held that against her and has done ever since then. But there's been all sorts of other areas of policy that has really grated with the Russians, particularly the foreign policy, the situation in Libya, the overthrow of president Gadhafi there, an ally of Russia, and something the Russians felt very betrayed about.

They said they thought they were supporting -- when they supported this intervention in Libya, it was going to keep civilians from being killed, and it turned into the overthrowing of a sort of pro-Russian regime of Gadhafi. That's the another thing the Kremlin has never really forgiven Hillary Clinton for.

[15:55:00] BALDWIN: I suppose there would have to be an evolution of the so-called love lost between the two if she were to win. Mathew Chance, thank you so much.

A cease fire underway in Syria's civil war. The country's dictator has issued a huge warning for Syria. We'll take you live to the border, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Cancer. Cancer affects 71,000 young adults every year in the U.S. this week's CNN hero has helped thousands of patients face down their fears on their life-changing outdoor adventures.

BRAD LUDDEN, FOUNDER, FIRST DESCENTS: I'm working with young people with cancer. We see a lot of them feeling like they're the only ones in the world dealing with the things they're dealing with. It's really important to get them together to where they can realize that other people are going through the same stuff. From day one on the river, these guys can't paddle straight lines. On the last days when they're paddling class 3 whitewater, we start to see beautiful transformations.

Watch the story on CNNHEROES.com.